Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Adams is aware that the Government has made no decisions in respect of the property tax and will discuss the matter in due course. All of the suggestions people make will be taken into consideration before that decision is finally made. I welcome the statement by Ms Muldoon from the Central Bank. The setting up of the mortgage arrears resolution committee has been attended by either Mr. Matthew Elderfield or Ms Muldoon and Mr. Moran from the Department of Finance. I welcome their statements and the fact that pressure is being put on the banks by the Central Bank to whom the banks have reported with their various schemes for dealing with mortgage distress for those with high levels of debt.

It is important to say that the strategy here is to focus on people who are not in a position to pay as distinct from those who can pay and continue to do so. Government strategy clearly has to focus on the first group. The regulator must drive this and I wrote to him on the Government's behalf last year telling him that if he required further powers from the Oireachtas in respect of his dealings with banks, he would get them. He was kind enough to respond very quickly to say that he did not consider that he needed further powers at this time.

The Bill being piloted by the Minister for Justice, Deputy Shatter, through the Dáil in respect of personal insolvency and the personal insolvency agency will give clients caught in this trap an opportunity to have a different structure to deal with their mortgage distress or arrears or level of debt if the banks have not been in a position to sit down with these clients and sort it out. I assure Deputy Adams that everybody wants to see people keep their roof over the heads and a resolution worked out. I agree that this is a source of enormous pressure, anxiety and concern for families every day of the week. However, we have inherited a mess which we have now changed in terms of the downsizing, restructuring and recapitalisation of the banks and the requirement of banks to report their schemes to deal with these areas to the regulator. We meet with the banks on a regular basis and tell them that they should now be sitting down with their clients to work this out because the Personal Insolvency Bill is moving through the Houses of the Oireachtas and will become law. At that stage clients will have an alternative method for having a conclusion reached in respect of their mortgage distress, insolvency or debt problems if the banks decide not to do that in the meantime. So it is for them to arrange to have qualified personnel work out solutions, which are all different. The Bill provides those in this category with the opportunity to avail of debt write-downs or forgiveness under the insolvency agency.

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